Customizable Photo-realistic Car-paint shader for Cycles

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8 | Cycles Render

CGL Car Paint Presets Pack 1.0 is a highly customizable photo-realistic car-paint shader I developed for Blender & the Cycles render engine.
The shader has built-in realistic effects like color blending, metallic flakes, clear-coat etc.
And ships with 32 ready-to-use real world car paint material presets.

CGL Car Paint Presets Pack 1.0 is available on Blender Market:
https://www.blendermarket.com/products/cg-lion-car-paint-presets-pack-1

https://vimeo.com/283194514

CGL_CarPaint.jpg

CGL_Cycles_Car_Paint_Presets_Pack_1.0_No_Numbers

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Related posts:
Realistic Spotlights for Blender & Cycles
Complex Fresnel texture for Cycles
Optimized Architectural Glazing Shader for Cycles
Procedural Wood Shader for Cycles

Blender – assign different cameras to different view-ports

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

By default, the view-ports Camera view in Blender displays the view from the camera that is set as the scene’s Active Camera.
If you split the view and in the new view select a different camera and set it as the Active Camera, the view in other view-ports set to camera view will update to display the new Active camera.
In short, by default, it seems you can’t assign different camera views to different view-ports..

But you can…

You just have to unlock the wanted view-port from the scene’s Active Camera by de-activating this button:

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When the Use the scene’s Active Camera and layers in this view button is de-activated, your allowed to set an Active Camera for the specific view-port without changing the scene’s Active Camera setting, therefore not affecting other view-ports displaying the camera view.

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Python for 3ds max – replace selected objects with a merged object

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2020

merge

The following Python for 3ds max snippet replaces all selected objects with an object merged from an external 3ds max file.

Get this code on gist

Notes:

  1. The ‘model_path’ string variable should be set to the path of the 3ds max file containing the replacement model.
  2. This example takes into account that the merged file contains only a single object, otherwise the first of the merged objects will be used.
  3. The script actually replaces the Object node of the selected objects with the Object node of the merged model (creating instances), assigning them the merged material giving them the merged object’s name appended with numbers.
from MaxPlus import FileManager
from MaxPlus import SelectionManager

model_path = r"D:\Models\Bar_Stool_A.max"

place_holders = []
for o in SelectionManager.Nodes:
     place_holders.append(o)

FileManager.Merge(model_path,True,True)

model = SelectionManager.GetNode(0)

for i in range(len(place_holders)):
     place_holders[i].SetObject(model.GetObject())
     place_holders[i].SetMaterial(model.GetMaterial())
     place_holders[i].SetName(model.Name + "_" + str(i))

model.Delete()

* note that when copying and pasting a script from this example, the indentation may not be pasted correctly.

Blender – Create constraints quickly

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

To create constraints quickly:

  1. Select the target object.
  2. Shift + Select the object to constrain (Active Object)
  3. Press Ctrl + Shift + C
  4. Choose the wanted constraint type.
  5. select the constrained object to set the constraint parameters.

cons

cons2
Related post:
Copy bone constraints

3ds max – Use the Particle-Flow Lock/Bond test to have particles move on a surface in

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2019

The Lock/Bond Particle Flow test can be used to have particle movement restricted to a surface.

lock_bond.gif

This example shows a simple setup in which the particle teapots have a Speed operator set to Random 3D mode that causes them to move in random directions,
While at the same time the Lock/Bond test forces them to ‘stick’ to the surface:

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Python – Listing the files in a directory

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Language:
Python 2.7

The following example uses functions from the os library to list the files in a given directory:

from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join
dir = "D:\\"
files = [f for f in listdir(dir) if isfile(join(dir, f))]
for f in files:
	print join(dir, f)

In the next example the script has been modified to list only files with the name extension ‘jpg’:

from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join
dir = "D:\\"
files = [f for f in listdir(dir) if isfile(join(dir, f)) and f[-3:]=='jpg']
for f in files:
	print join(dir, f)

 

* note that when copying and pasting a script from this example, the indentation may not be pasted correctly.

Python for 3ds max – list scene objects

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2019

Iterating through a list of all of an object’s hierarchy or all of the objects in the scene is a very common requirement for scripted tools and utilities in 3D animation software.
Coming from a MaxScript background, I was used to just have to write the word ‘objects‘ to reference a list of all of the objects in the scene.

Unless I’m missing something obvious,
There isn’t a shortcut like this available in the 3ds max Python API.

In order to list all the objects in the scene you need to use a recursive function that will return a list of all of a node’s children, and children’s children, etc.

In the following example, the function ‘list_children()’ will return a list all of the objects in the supplied node’s hierarchy, and when given the scene’s root node via MaxPlus.Core.GetRootNode() it will return a list of all the objects in the scene.
Wrapping ‘list_children()’ within the ‘scene_objects()’ function, provides a convenient way get a list of all the objects in the scene just by calling ‘scene_objects()’.

def scene_objects():
    def list_children(node):
       list = []
       for c in node.Children:
           list.append(c)
           list = list + list_children(c)
       return list
    return list_children(MaxPlus.Core.GetRootNode())


for o in scene_objects():
    print o.Name

* note that when copying and pasting a script from this example, the indentation may not be pasted correctly.

Related:

Python for 3ds max – Select objects of type

Python for 3ds max – Animated Mesh

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2019

This is an example of procedurally animating a mesh’s vertices via Python script.

Vert_Anim.gif

Notes:
1. The model has to be converted to Editable Mesh before the script is run.
* unless the scrip will be extended to do it.
2. The model must be selected for the script to work.

import MaxPlus
import math
from MaxPlus import INode
from MaxPlus import TriObject
from MaxPlus import SelectionManager
from MaxPlus import Factory
from MaxPlus import Animation
from MaxPlus import Point3
from MaxPlus import Control

ticks_frame = 160

#Selection
sel = []
for n in SelectionManager.Nodes:
    sel.append(n)
node = sel[0]

#Setup Controllers
obj = node.GetObject()
Tri = TriObject._CastFrom(obj)
mesh = Tri.GetMesh()
num_verts = mesh.GetNumVertices()
mesh_anim = obj.GetSubAnim(0)
pnt_ctrl = Factory.CreateDefaultMasterPointController()
node.AssignController(pnt_ctrl,1)
for i in range(num_verts):
    bezp3 = Factory.CreateDefaultPoint3Controller()
    bezp3.SetPoint3Value(mesh.GetVertex(i))
    mesh_anim.AssignController(bezp3,i)

#Animation
Animation.SetAnimateButtonState(True)
for t in range(100):
    time = t * ticks_frame
    Animation.SetTime(time)
    mesh_anim.AddNewKey(time,0)
    for i in range(num_verts):
        vert_anim = mesh_anim.GetSubAnim(i)
        vert_ctrl = Control._CastFrom(vert_anim)
        vert_val = mesh.GetVertex(i)
        vert_val.SetZ(vert_val.GetZ() + math.sin(((Animation.GetTime()*0.5)/(ticks_frame))+i))
        vert_ctrl.SetPoint3Value(vert_val)
Animation.SetAnimateButtonState(False)

* note that when copying and pasting a script from this example, the indentation may not be pasted correctly.

Related:
Python for 3ds max – Mesh manipulation

Python for 3ds max – Create Objects

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds Max 2019

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from MaxPlus import ClassIds
from MaxPlus import Point3
import random

# Define Sphere geometry object:
sphere_obj = Factory.CreateGeomObject(ClassIds.Sphere)
sphere_obj.ParameterBlock.Radius.Value = 5
sphere_obj.ParameterBlock.Segs.Value = 64

# Create a list of 10 sphere instanced objects:
spheres = []
for i in range(10):
    spheres.append(Factory.CreateNode(sphere_obj))

# Move spheres to random positions
for s in spheres:
    s.SetLocalPosition(Point3( random.randint(-50,50),
                               random.randint(-50,50),
                               random.randint(-50,50)))
    scale = 5.0 * (random.randint(30,100)/100.0)
    s.SetLocalScale(Point3(scale,scale,scale))

* note that when copying and pasting a script from this example, the indentation may not be pasted correctly.

Getting Maya 3D Paint to work

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018

Steps needed for Maya 3D Paint to work:

  1. Set a project folder and save your scene.
    * If your painting into an existing texture you can skip this step.
  2. Make sure your model has UV coordinates.
  3. Make sure your model has a basic Lambert material.
    * If you’re using a different material/shader on your model,
    Temporarily switch to Lambert just for the texture painting operation,
    And connect the original shader with the painted texture map to the surface shader input of the shading group after you’re done painting.
  4. In the Rendering tab toolbar, Double-Click the 3D Paint tool button to activate 3D Paint and also open its tool settings window.
  5. Make sure the object is selected.
  6. In the 3D Paint Settings window, go to the File Textures part,
    Choose a material attribute to paint to.
    * this would usually be Color because we are using Lambert temporarily anyway.
  7. Click Assign/Edit Textures to open the Assign/Edit Textures dialog,
    Choose a resolution and a file format for the new texture,
    And than click Assign/Edit Textures button at the bottom of the Assign/Edit Textures dialog to create the new texture and close the dialog.
    * If you already connected an existing texture file to the Lambert shader’s Color input you can skip this step.
  8. Check Update on stroke and Save texture on stroke.
  9. Set the viewport to Textured display mode.
  10. Set paint brush settings.
  11. Click the 3D Paint tool button to activate it and paint on the model surface.

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